Due to the very high value of resource licensing (processor performance, processor metering, memory licensing, IO licensing) on large, multi-processor computing systems, a license is intended to run on one and only one system. To do this, both the resource licenses and the physical hardware must contain some type of ID that ties both together. Previously this licensing ID (aka MCN) has been the physical serial number of a cell 0 module that contains hardware components like processors, memory, and IO components. This cell 0 serial number would be created uniquely across the corporation, and would be visible across the entire system even if the system was further subdivided into separate OS instantiations or partitions. Thus all OS partitions could see this ID even if the cell 0 was not part of the current active OS partition.
Thus licensing uniqueness is guaranteed and resource licensing keys linked to this licensing ID are not transferable to other systems. Furthermore on metering systems, this unique licensing ID is used to identify customers when monthly metering reports are automatically sent by a metering system to a corresponding billing system.
Problems occur when there is a problem retrieving the licensing serial number from cell 0. The system immediately becomes unusable if a hardware problem renders cell 0 unusable because the system identity no longer matches the serial number in the system resource keys. If cell 0 is replaced, it will have a new cell serial number and all of the resource licensing keys will have to be replaced. For metering systems, related billing systems will have to be aware that the new identity for the replacement cell 0 is associated with an existing customer and may have to coalesce multiple metering reports to create a unified metering report for the period when the cell was replaced.
In all, it is a usability, support, and billing nightmare when cell 0 and its associated system identity fail. Details regarding this multi-workload processor based computing system is described in more detail in concurrently filed and commonly assigned U.S. Provisional Patent Application entitled “SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR SEPARATING MULTIPLE WORKLOADS PROCESSING IN A SINGLE COMPUTER OPERATING ENVIRONMENT,” by Thompson et al., Attorney Docket No. TN472, filed 27 Apr. 2006, which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety. Functionality of multi-workload metering system is described in more detail in concurrently filed and commonly assigned U.S. Provisional Patent Application entitled “SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR SEPARATING MULTI-WORKLOAD PROCESSOR UTILIZATION ON A METERED COMPUTER SYSTEM,” by Thompson et al., Attorney Docket No. TN471, filed 27 Apr. 2006, which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.